Abstract Rhythm in Time DigitalART With AppleMusicThe Definitive James Blood Ulmer byAlan Silva

+ James "Blood" Ulmer was a free jazz exception: an outside guitarist who forged a style based largely on the traditions of African-American vernacular music. Ulmer was an adherent of saxophonist/composer Ornette Coleman's vaguely defined Harmolodic theory, which subverts jazz's harmonic component in favor of freely improvised, non-tonal, or quasi-modal counterpoint. Ulmer played with a stuttering, vocalic attack; his lines were often texturally and chordally based, inflected with the accent of a soul-jazz tenor saxophonist. That's not to say his sound was untouched by the rock tradition -- the influence of Jimi Hendrix on Ulmer was strong -- but it was mixed with blues, funk, and free jazz elements. The resultant music was an expressive, hard-edged, loudly amplified hybrid that is, at its best, on a level with the finest of the Harmolodic school. His career spanned many decades and he remained active into the 2010s. Ulmer died on June 3, 2026, at the age of 86.

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